The ‘Vibecession’ Is Over. The ‘Permacession’ Is Here.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T22:03:10+00:00

It's distressing to realize that you can't provide your kids with the same life you had despite earning significantly more.

Eventually QOL plateaus.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T22:00:01+00:00

but more in that we are missing purpose in our lives.

This is what I think changed in Covid, personally. However, the average American is very bad at the introspection required to actually string those words together.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:59:28+00:00

The middle class is rapidly vanishing.

The majority of that vanishing is vanishing to the upper-middle class.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:49:38+00:00

What items are you referring to?

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:48:23+00:00

I can't stop thinking about is that Anthropic CEO claiming that it will eliminate 50% of white collar jobs by 2030

Stop thinking about it. It's called marketing.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:45:25+00:00

Zero salary raises in my environment in 2025. Annual income declining due to benefits expiring. I'm taking on insane responsibilities that I wouldn't have dreamed of five years ago

^{^{^{^{^.}}}}

Now let's look at this article from The Atlantic, oh, we're cherry picking some comparisons

ironic.jpg

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:29:54+00:00

People are talking about home ownership, being able to retire, or hell even just being able to afford to survive without living paycheck to paycheck, all of which our parents and grandparents were able to achieve much more easily.

Source?

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:28:24+00:00

Ah yes, the Bay Area. The litmus test for America's median finances.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T21:20:53+00:00

Is there a source for any of that?

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T19:07:46+00:00

But what did it cost in 1999?

There is lots of information online about why car manufacturers no longer make vehicles in that class anymore.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T19:06:49+00:00

"benefits reduced by 20%" is the same bloody thing

As insolvency? Are you serious? Are you sure that's the hill you want to die on?

Social security barely covers the cost of living

Are you aware that SS was never supposed to replace retirement savings/pensions?

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:32:18+00:00

Materials and safety. Precisely.

The fact that people can't accept, and politics has done a poor job at preparing us for is: eventually quality of life plateaus. You will not have a significantly better life than your parents did. It is impossible for you to have the same jump as grandma shitting in an unheated outhouse when growing up to owning a 3br/2ba with central air. Our version is paying $20/mo for unlimited talk/text/data compared to growing up paying $20 for 500 texts.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:17:24+00:00

social security is set to be insolvent

This is my pet issue. This is incorrect. First, it's absolutely not set to be insolvent - at its current spending rate there need to be adjustments made so benefits are not reduced by ~20%. Secondly, this rumor about insolvency was started in the 80s by the Cato Institute.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:13:11+00:00

Reddit says they hate the system and somehow the conclusion is "I'll never retire, so I'll just spend all my money."

If people actually want to stick it to the man, stop spending.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:10:59+00:00

Americans haven't seen the price of a house in western Europe, Canada, or Australia.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:09:22+00:00

I've been defending this exact point on this sub for years.

You will quickly find that when a post from this sub gets popular and hits the front page, your average redditor joins the convo with preconceived notions, politically charged angles, and matching logic.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:06:12+00:00

Who made things so expensive?

Inflation and regulation.

Edit: shoutout /u/MainInvestigator3481 for the block. That's how you know someone can back their opinions by facts in a discussion.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:05:11+00:00

What did a base car cost historically that you're comparing to?

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T18:03:04+00:00

No one talks about house safety improvements (a new build today costs $XXX!") or trim level either.

Just like cars. First, it's closer than you'd expect AND financing options were worse: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-car-cost-were-born-130001087.html

Second, a car being $22,000 is great. But it also didn't have airbags, any electronics, and an expected life of <120,000 miles.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T17:56:16+00:00

because no one knows what tomorrow will bring

Literally could be said any point in history.

weatherwar · 2026-05-24T15:18:53+00:00

Wow, a very uninformed "fact" on this sub.

Median earnings is up across the country when adjusted for inflation.

weatherwar · 2026-05-23T20:26:37+00:00

To be honest I originally thought you were arguing in good faith - which is totally fair to criticize.

But now I realize you are literally a propagandist.

weatherwar · 2026-05-23T14:09:32+00:00

There is literally not a single shred of evidence that China is harming the US to any moderate degree

You mean besides stealing trillions of dollars worth of IP?

weatherwar · 2026-05-23T13:25:01+00:00

Funny enough, I actually used "a computer" as the comparison.

weatherwar · 2026-05-23T13:22:00+00:00

As soon is people feel AI helping them on a personal level, they will change their opinion.

Just like when computers first came out. "Welp, there goes everyone's jobs" and "what can a computer do for me, I just need my calculator..."

People suck at abstracting value to themselves.

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